up accepting a knocked-down plea deal and a The courTroom 45-day sentence of picking up trash along the highway, which he served during weekends. In a tea-colored superior courtroom on a “That was typical,” said DiAngelo, who has slow-cooked May morning, a visiting judge become an advocate for sex workers’ rights. who resembles a svelte Wilford Brimley seats “You can’t call the police. Nobody’s going to himself and gavels the matter to order. help you. They won’t even listen to you.” Brewer and Gunn stand behind a rich, Thirty years later, that belief remains intact. burnished table wearing matching jumpsuits and “It seems pretty obvious that a number blank expressions. Horizontally striped in pale of sex workers don’t report the assaults orange and tawny white, the accused rapists they suffer for a whole host of reasons,” resemble toddlers observed Kimberly in shackles. Brewer A. Horiuchi, an especially, with his attorney with the round, slack face American Civil and pinking cheeks. Liberties Union of But the litany of Northern California. charges—forced Most sex workers rape, forced oral that come through copulation, anal or Crabtree’s shelter genital penetration doors seeking help with an object, decline to report their kidnapping, assault assaults to authorities. with a firearm, on The majority return and on—is the work to their abusers. of monsters. “No matter how It’s only when much assurance Savannah enters that we’d give them … the co-defendants’ there’s no way they’d expressions shift. report,” Crabtree said. They glance back Fear is often the at the woman they overriding factor—of tormented, trying to retaliation, of being Even though Savannah was assaulted, make eye contact. arrested or not being tortured and left for dead by captors outside Savannah trembles, of Sacramento, the state denied her victim believed, and fear even with three burly compensation because she was a sex worker. of starting over. bailiffs crowding the That last wrinkle is defense table. especially unique. Absorbing none “The added factor of this, the judge for these women … arrives to the point: this is like their job,” “The defendant Crabtree explained. has the mental “It completely not just competency to changes you emotionstand trial,” he ally, but now it’s declares. “Criminal financially affecting her proceedings are as well.” now reinstated.” As a result, female Brewer’s prostitutes are 34 public defender more times likely to quickly starts be killed by homicide sniffing around than the average for a plea deal. Californian, says a Deputy District 2003 study in the Attorney Gabrielle American Journal of Stidger is amenable Epidemiology. Most to the idea. In her sex workers have mind, she’s already drafted out a 25-years-totaken to self-policing through unofficial life offer that both men would have to accept, or escort websites like myRedBook, where they risk going to trial, where a mountain of physical tag “bad dates” in online forums to warn evidence, and a motivated victim, could doom each other away from violence and robbery. them for multiple lifetimes. But with a widened campaign against human But Stidger wants to spare her star witness trafficking—one that’s created new federal the trauma of testifying, where she’d be raked and state income streams for law-enforcement over the details of the crime and her profession agencies—escorts like DiAngelo say they could by both defense attorneys. The prosecutor be prosecuted simply for sharing information also knows there’s a risk, even a small one, in or providing support. For instance, someone putting Savannah before a conservative county who drives an escort across county lines to an jury and asking them to sympathize with an appointment and then waits in the car to make escort. sure she returns safely could be accused of Stidger’s boss, District Attorney Todd Riebe, trafficking. crunched the mental math himself. “It hasn’t manifested itself yet, at least to “I think there were a few potential hurdles my knowledge, but theoretically that could be a if the case went to a jury trial—just because concern … given the extraordinarily expansive you might be up against jurors who are put off definition of human trafficking,” Horiuchi by it, or have a really judgmental mindset,” he allowed. “That shouldn’t be the way that sex acknowledged. “But I don’t think that detail was workers find safety in sex work.” a fatal challenge at all. I was confident that no Maybe not. But what’s the alternative?
matter what she was doing at the time, nothing would justify to jurors the crimes these men committed.” Reality doesn’t always break that way. In 2007, a Philadelphia judge reduced the charges of four men accused of gang-raping a female escort at gunpoint to theft of services. Ms. R. described her dealings with Alameda County prosecutors as traumatizing. “They have hurt me way more than the rape ever could,” she said. But even when you have a sympathetic district attorney on your side, as in Savannah’s case, there are still setbacks. Ten months, 18 court dates and seven judges passed since two sadists tried to bury Savannah in their own hatred. They almost did. Savannah’s returned to the ER seven times for panic attacks. She has nightmares that it’s her teddy bear of a husband accosting her instead of Brewer and Gunn. The state has also denied her victim compensation application for counseling and moving costs twice—because she was “involved in the underlying crime of prostitution.” “I was embarrassed that that came from anyone who even pretends they’re representing victims,” Crabtree scolded. Twenty-eight sex workers received similar rejection letters last year from the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board. Savannah isn’t alone, but she feels like she is. “It’s hard. It’s still hard,” she admitted, her earthy brown eyes glistening. “But I’ve had to move on with my life.”
Last month, she took a big step. Savannah and her family caravanned from their patchwork life in Carmichael so she could speak at the felony sentencing hearing. After a tragicomedy of courtroom miscues—starring bickering defendants, dismissed attorneys and politically hamstrung judges—Brewer and Gunn finally swallowed a 25-to-life deal and admitted their guilt. November 1 was the first time Savannah’s attackers heard her voice since she begged them for her life. Her back to a shushed audience, the young mother of two steadied her trembling hands and explained what it felt like to have her sacred things taken. As she read, Brewer clenched his reddening jaw. His collaborator adopted a more hapless expression, looking both shameful and dopey. “I am so thankful that I am here today to tell my story about the two monsters that now get to pay for their evil ways,” she said in a soft, steady voice. After concluding her statement, the woman who wouldn’t stop fighting waded through an orange-glow courtroom that’d fallen pin-drop silent. There are thousands of stories like hers, untold by a repressed sorority whose contours may never be known. Survivors often ask Crabtree whether coming forward is worth it. The advocate doesn’t always know what to say. “You have to be really, really strong,” she advises them. Then she thinks of Savannah. “It’s really pretty amazing how much inner strength she found.” Ω
Arrests occurred in only 21 percent of rape cases last year in California, and 19 percent in Sacramento County. The results are even worse for sex workers, even though they’re more likely targets.
BEFORE
|
NEWS
|
F E AT U R E
STORY
After much delay, Savannah’s captors pleaded guilty to 25-years-to-life sentences.
| A R T S & C U L T U R E
|
AFTER
| 12.05.13
|
SN&R
|
19